A protest in Parliament Square against antisemitism in the Labour party on 26 March.
Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz / Barcroft Images

Half of the electorate believes that there are at least pockets of antisemitism in the Labour party, according to a poll.

A third (34%) of voters also believe that Jeremy Corbyn is among those in the party who hold antisemitic views, despite his repeated denials and pledge to be a “militant opponent” of the problem.

The findings, from a debut poll by the Deltapoll company, will frustrate the Labour leadership. The party has attempted to draw a line under the issue by vowing to implement all the recommendations in Shami Chakrabarti’s 2016 report (PDF) into alleged antisemitism in the party.

The poll found that 51% believes Labour has a problem with antisemitism to some degree. It found that 17% think the party is “riddled” with people holding antisemitic views, including Corbyn. The same proportion think “pockets” of antisemitism exist within Labour, including its leader. Two-fifths of 2017 Labour voters (39%) think that people within the party hold antisemitic views.

It comes as the party is dealing with a backlog of disciplinary action against members accused of antisemitism and as a Labour MP faced a motion from her local party, censuring her for attending a protest against antisemitism in Labour. The motion against Thangam Debbonaire, the MP for Bristol West, was defeated.

Deltapoll also looked at the popularity of leading politicians. Corbyn scored a net approval rating of -27, with the prime minister, Theresa May, on -6. She had better ratings than her cabinet team, with the chancellor Philip Hammond on -10, Brexit secretary David Davis on -22, and foreign secretary Boris Johnson on -26.

At the bottom of the pile came Vince Cable. With the Lib Dems still struggling to make an impact, its leader has a net approval rating of -29.

Deltapoll interviewed 1,010 people online on 5-6 April. The results were weighted to reflect the profile of all UK adults.